A pitch to build Canada’s first dark sky corridor along the Fundy Coast

Astrotourism is one of the fastest-growing types of tourism worldwide, and southern New Brunswick is aiming to put itself on the map. Sarah Plowman has more.

A group of New Brunswickers are pitching a plan to create a dark sky corridor along the Fundy Coast in a bid to preserve the night sky for stargazers.

Fundy-St. Martins is coastal and quaint. It’s hugged by red cliffs and sea caves shaped by the Bay of Fundy, that boasts of having the world’s highest tides and draws more than 150,000 tourists each year.

But for many locals, the best show is at night after the sun sinks into the horizon and stars appear.

“These stars and these nights, I feel that many people have taken it for granted,” said Drexel Tjui, who moved to St. Martins from Ontario four years ago.

He finds the starry sky he can see from his house relaxing and peaceful. Sometimes when he looks up, he thinks of family members who’ve passed away. Each observation brings him perspective.

“It’s just that how small we are as a living species and this whole system,” Tjui said.

Far from big city lights in more populated areas, the darkness in Fundy-St. Martins exposes much of what lies beyond the earth. Maps measuring light pollution around the world rank the area on the lower end the spectrum, meaning it’s a great place to see stars.

“We see the Milky Way stand right up. You see that ancient nebulous cloud streak right across the sky,” said Stéphane Picard, an astrophotographer who runs an astrotourism and consulting business called Cliff Valley Astronomy.

He notes that light pollution prevents 60 per cent of Canadians and 80 per cent of Americans from seeing the Milky Way from where they live.

“Not only is the world’s population losing its dark sky, they’ve lost that intimacy with the dark sky,” he said.

It’s part of the reason Picard is working on a community initiative to make the municipality of Fundy-St. Martins and nearby provincial parks designated dark sky sites to preserve it for stargazers and limit light pollution.

Fundy National Park and Irving Nature Park in Saint John are already certified as dark sky locations. Picard’s dream is to add more and create a dark sky corridor that would stretch from New River Beach Provincial Park to Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park.

“At least six certified dark sky sites in the stretch of about 160-180 kilometres, which would be the highest concentration that dark sky sites in the world,” he said.

In the middle of the corridor is the community of Fundy-St. Martins.

St. Martins & District Chamber of Commerce sees astrotourism as a way for people to come to the region, play and stay.

“Having something like this amazing dark sky and the fact that we’ve protected it brings people here. It’s a web of win, win, win,” said Elaine Shannon, President of the St. Martins and District Chamber of Commerce.

She points out it’s not just about business, but the bigger picture.

“It’s good for the humans that live here. It’s good for the wildlife and it’s good for the ecology,” said Shannon.

Jim Bedford, Mayor of Fundy-St. Martins, said the village council has given the dark sky committee a letter to move forward so they can apply for grants but a lot more work needs to be done, including more public consultation and figuring out if the community must change its rural plan.

Bedford sees the benefits of astrotourism but also notes residents still have a lot of questions about how it affects them. He thinks it’ll take more public consultation.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done before we get to that point to say, yes, you have the blessing of council and then you have our vote to move forward with this,” Bedford said.

Canada already has pockets of dark sky sites and reserves as astrotourism grows and people seek chances to connect with nature. But to see a corridor all along the Fundy Coast would be a first in Canada, according to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

“This is a really exciting proposal,” said Ashley Northcotte, the Communications Coordinator at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

“Canada is really uniquely positioned, if this happens to go through, to be in a position to be a leader in dark sky preservation,” she adds.